Brazil’s Nutec launches system to convert fish waste into oil for biodiesel feedstock

25 November 2012

Brazil’s Industrial Technology Core Foundation of Ceará (Nutec), an entity linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the State (Secitece), launched Biopeixe Machine, which converts 50% of fish viscera into fats for the production of oil which will, in turn, be converted into biodiesel. Participating in the launch was Petrobras Biofuel.

The equipment has as main objective the provision of the disposal of waste generated by the fish farming activity in the processing of Nile Tilapia, a fish grown in tanks, present in the main reservoirs of the State of Ceará.

Currently Ceara produces approximately 166,667 tonnes of fish/year. It is estimated that a range of 50 to 70% of the total mass of the viscera can be converted into fish oil. Under current conditions a monthly production of fish oil for 1 million liters/year is possible, reaching 10 million liters/year.

The Reference Laboratory of Biofuels Nutec, in partnership with the Center for Excellence in Automation and Robotics (CENTAUR) company EkIPAR developed the equipment under the sponsorship of the Bank of Northeast Brazil - BNB and the State Government.

The equipment will enable producers of tilapia to increase their profitability via generating income from the use of fish offal for the production of biofuel.

The machine is in the process of technology transfer to manufacturing scale. The completion of this phase will be initialized later this month at the Research Laboratory of the National Department of Works Against Drought-DNOCS, at Pentecost, Ceará.